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Talk Social: 31 October, 2017

Instagram unveils Go Live With A Friend

Instagram has launched a new feature called Go Live With A Friend, which allows users to broadcast in collaboration with someone else.

To use it, simply open the camera, select the Live option, tap the two happy faces and then press Add to invite those currently watching a Live story. This splits the screen in two, allowing guests to pop up on the video feed.

The benefits of this function tie in with the fact that Live videos currently generate the most reach across all social networks. This allows businesses in particular to connect directly with their audience and show off their brand’s personality.

It’s possible to save Live videos and reformat them for sharing on other networks so that people who missed them can replay.

Possible ways for brands to maximise this co-streaming feature include interviews and Q&As, joint webinars, collaboration announcements and weekly round-ups.

Facebook is introducing more transparency to its advertising, in the wake of criticism over political advertising and continued suggestions that it listens in to conversations via smartphones.

The social media giant is starting the process with political advertising. From now on, political ad buyers in America will require verification, in the form of revealing their correct names and locations.

The social network will also create new graphics where users can click on the ads and find out more about who’s behind them.

Twitter has unveiled a new type of video ad that provides a more immersive brand experience. Video Website Cards allow advertisers to connect their video ads to a website, with the ad continuing to play as the website uploads. When clicked on mobile, the video shifts to the top of the screen and the website opens below it.

Twitter believes that the new function will result in more personalised interactions with brands, their websites essentially becoming an extension of their ad content. Meanwhile, consumers are afforded a more seamless experience along the path to conversion.

Research by Twitter this year showed that tweets with video received nine times more engagement than those with just basic text.

Having video play while a web page loads means people are less likely to abandon the site because it’s taking too long to load, with Twitter reporting a 60 per cent increase in user retention.

WhatsApp is rolling out a feature that will allow its one billion plus users to delete messages sent to the wrong group or person.

As it stands, the delete function only removes the message for the person who sent it, meaning everyone else can still read it. The new update will give users the opportunity to ‘delete for everyone’.

Being able to delete messages is particularly useful for messages sent to the wrong chat or that contained a mistake. The removed content will be replaced with a notification to say that the message was deleted.

It will only be possible to delete messages for up to seven minutes after sending them.

One year ago, Facebook launched Workplace, a social network designed specifically for businesses to directly compete with Microsoft and Slack.

Now, 30,000 organisations use Workplace across one million groups, which has more than doubled since April.

Now Facebook has ramped up its offering, releasing a desktop app for Workplace Chat that includes screen sharing and, in coming months, group video chat for up to 50 people.

By adding in more features, Facebook hopes more people will stay on the app, rather than going to competitors, thereby increasing engagement. In order to make the user experience more seamless, Facebook has integrated Workplace with popular services including Box, Microsoft and Dropbox.

Organisations signed up include Walmart, the world’s biggest employer, as well as Deliveroo.